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Sleep paralysis, or more properly, sleep paralysis with Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic hallucinations have been singled out as a particularly likely source of beliefs concerning not only alien abductions, but also all manner of beliefs in alternative realities and otherworldly creatures. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which someone, most often lying in a supine position, about to drop of to sleep, or just upon waking from sleep realizes that she/he is unable to move, or speak, or cry out. This may last a few seconds or several moments, occasionally longer. People frequently report feeling a "presence" that is often described as malevolent, threatening, or evil. An intense sense of dread and terror is very common. The presence is likely to be vaguely felt or sensed just out of sight but thought to be watching or monitoring, often with intense interest, sometimes standing by, or sitting on, the bed. On some occasions the presence may attack, strangling and exerting crushing pressure on the chest. People also report auditory, visual, proprioceptive, and tactile hallucinations, as well as floating sensations and out-of-body experiences. These various sensory experiences have been referred to collectively as Hypnagogic and Hypnopompic experiences (HHEs). People frequently try, unsuccessfully, to cry out. After seconds or minutes one feels suddenly released from the paralysis, but may be left with a lingering anxiety. Extreme effort to move may even produce phantom movements in which there is proprioceptive feedback of movement that conflicts with visual disconfirmation of any movement of the limb. People may also report severe pain in the limbs when trying to move them. Several recent surveys suggest that between 25-30% of the population reports that they have experienced at least a mild form of sleep paralysis at
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least once and about 20-30% of these have had the experience on several occasions. A few people may have very elaborate experiences almost nightly (or many times in a night) for years. Aside from many of the very disturbing features of the experience itself the phenomenon is quite benign. It was thought in the past that it was a significant part of the so-called "narcoleptic tetrad", but recent surveys of non-clinical populations, suggest that the prevalence may be as high among the general population as among diagnosed narcoleptics.
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If you have a true story about your experience with Sleep Paralysis. Please E-mail them to us and we will post them on this page for others to read.
Submit your true Sleep Paralysis experience.
True Stories of Sleep Paralysis Experiences
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Well, this did not happen to me, it happened to my sister. And for the record I would like to say my sister is very much a Christian, she is a very upstanding person, a straight A student, and is not a very eccentric person. We have talked about her experience a couple of times before, but until I read on your web site about it, I had never heard anyone else talk about it before. I was really amazed, because what you talk about is exactly what my sister described to me. I also want to thank you, because my sister will be very happy and relieved when I show her it has actually happened to many other people. But any ways, my sister was in bed asleep one night, and all of a sudden she woke up, and she didn't know why. Then she had an overwhelming sense of fear or dread. She kept seeing the face of a beautiful man above her, but she was so scared, because she knew the beautiful man was Lucifer. She felt an immense pressure over her entire body, especially her head. She tried to move and to cry out, but she was totally paralyzed. She began to cry, but still could not holler out for help. The whole while she kept seeing the face before her. She doesn't know for certain how long this went on for, maybe for only a couple of minutes, but she said it felt like an eternity. Also, she swears she was completely awake the whole time this was happening, and although it happened about three years ago, still remembers everything very vividly. She thinks this may have happened to her because of her intense belief of God, but we still are not for sure.
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I have experienced sleep paralysis several times in my life. Most of these times have occurred within the last 3 years. I am now 21. I read somewhere, don't really remember where that SP often occurs during periods of stress. My freshman year in college was when I experienced the most episodes of SP. Often I would come back to my dorm room after my early class to take a little nap. Right before I would fall asleep my body would go completely numb all over and I would have this feeling like I was slowly falling through my bed. This feeling was always accompanied by an intense, high pitched sound ringing in my ears. After "falling through the bed" for about 2-3 seconds, I would realize that I was awake and try to move. It usually took about 5-10 seconds before I could get myself together though. THE MOST TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE I had with SP was also my freshman year in the dorm room. I had actually fallen asleep, but dreamed that my roommate and I had walked into the bathroom together. The dream seemed very real. We stood side by side and looked into the mirror which was about 4 feet long and 3 feet tall, sitting about 4 feet off the ground. I don't know why we went in there or looked into the mirror, but it didn't take long for the freaky stuff to happen. The door slammed shut behind us (I'm getting chills just remembering this) and the lights in the bathroom went off. Suddenly a figure appeared in the mirror. It wasn't in the shape of a human or anything, More like smoke. It had a reddish color
to it. Whatever it was "reached" out of the mirror and grabbed me. As soon as it came into contact with me, I got the same feeling of numbness and heard the high pitched sound like before. It pulled me into the mirror and I had an extreme sense of falling. My breathing became intense and my heart started pounding. I then woke up and was trembling all over. my roommate said I had been asleep for about 3 minutes.
Submitted by: (Nickname) ImAnselmo
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When I was small, maybe eleven or twelve, I was dozing on my stomach in the sun room. I awoke to a bright, beautiful sunny day. But when I tried to move from my spot on the couch, I found that I couldn’t. Almost instantly, the full effects of the paralysis took me, and a heavy weight came down on my head and back. But instead of the loud throbbing I'd previously heard in other bouts of SP, I heard something else... the sound of a party. Many people in the room with me, talking, laughing, and dancing... a sound which blended together into an indistinguishable din. But then the noise died out a little, and the sound of a cane on the wooden floor came next... someone walking towards me. The cane came closer and closer, frightening me here the most, until, at it's closest, I was finally able to wrench myself free of the paralysis and sit up. I left the room quickly, and didn’t return until later that night. As a young teenager I had several bouts of SP in my attic room. At that age, I developed a theme nightmare, focusing around the death of a little girl I seemed to instinctively know had once lived here. She lived in the wall, murdered somehow, I think, and would come to me in the paralysis late at night. (almost always around three in the morning.) sometimes she sat on the edge of my bed, a dark, sad shadow with short hair and a little black dress. Sometimes she would run around my room, or up and down my stairs. But other times she would come so close to me that I couldn’t see her anymore, and she'd whisper in my ear, hard enough for me to feel her breath. But the paralysis always kept me terrifyingly immobile, and I could do nothing to push the presence away. When it was over, and I could move again, I would always continue to feel petrified, and weak-bellied, but somehow almost empathetic towards her. She never said anything malevolent... only slight comments about me, or people I know. some even reassuring. ("Madeline loves you." "get some rest" "one day, you'll know...") The fact that my SP had such a consistent theme lent out to the idea that she must have been real, and for a time, I even picked up the habit of idly talking to her during waking hours... though, now that I look back on it, I feel kind of silly having spent all that time talking into empty air and getting no answers.
Submitted by: Julia
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When I was small, maybe eleven or twelve, I was dozing on my stomach in the sun room. I awoke to a bright, beautiful sunny day. But when I tried to move from my spot on the couch, I found that I couldn’t. Almost instantly, the full effects of the paralysis took me, and a heavy weight came down on my head and back. But instead of the loud throbbing I'd previously heard in other bouts of SP, I heard something else... the sound of a party. Many people in the room with me, talking, laughing, and dancing... a sound which blended together into an indistinguishable din. But then the noise died out a little, and the sound of a cane on the wooden floor came next... someone walking towards me. The cane came closer and closer, frightening me here the most, until, at it's closest, I was finally able to wrench myself free of the paralysis and sit up. I left the room quickly, and didn’t return until later that night. As a young teenager I had several bouts of SP in my attic room. At that age, I developed a theme nightmare, focusing around the death of a little girl I seemed to instinctively know had once lived here. She lived in the wall, murdered somehow, I think, and would come to me in the paralysis late at night. (almost always around three in the morning.) sometimes she sat on the edge of my bed, a dark, sad shadow with short hair and a little black dress. Sometimes she would run around my room, or up and down my stairs. But other times she would come so close to me that I couldn’t see her anymore, and she'd whisper in my ear, hard enough for me to feel her breath. But the paralysis always kept me terrifyingly immobile, and I could do nothing to push the presence away. When it was over, and I could move again, I would always continue to feel petrified, and weak-bellied, but somehow almost empathetic towards her. She never said anything malevolent... only slight comments about me, or people I know. some even reassuring. ("Madeline loves you." "get some rest" "one day, you'll know...") The fact that my SP had such a consistent theme lent out to the idea that she must have been real, and for a time, I even picked up the habit of idly talking to her during waking hours... though, now that I look back on it, I feel kind of silly having spent all that time talking into empty air and getting no answers.
Submitted by: Julia
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